1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to handguns and, more particularly, to a pistol having a locking mechanism to lock and unlock the pistol trigger mechanism.
2. Description of the Currently Available Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,915 describes a revolver that includes a locking device that blocks the hammer if an attempt to operate the revolver is made by an unauthorized person. The device has a scanner on the revolver grip that identifies the palm print of the shooter and compares it to a pattern stored in memory. If the scanned print matches the print stored in memory, the hammer is unlocked by a solenoid so that the weapon is ready for firing. However, this solution cannot be used on most automatic pistols since the magazine must be inserted into the pistol grip and, therefore, there would be no room for the locking device.
Additional locking devices for handguns that can be fired only by authorized users are described in DE-A-43 03 333 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,603,179; 5,022,175; and 4,970,819.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to create a locking mechanism for a pistol, e.g., an automatic pistol, that locks the trigger mechanism of the pistol if an unauthorized person attempts to fire the pistol. The invention teaches that this object can be accomplished by the features disclosed hereinbelow.